The facade of Nanking Restaurant. A Telegraph picture

The civic body has filed an FIR asking police to stop any attempt at razing the building that housed Nanking Restaurant in the Poddar Court area.

“The structure is on the heritage list and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation is committed to protecting it. The the FIR was filed on Friday to pre-empt any attempt at demolishing the building,” civic commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay said on Sunday.

Director-general (project management unit) Anindya Karforma lodged the FIR with Bowbazar police station on behalf of the civic body.

A police team went to the spot after the FIR was filed and stopped repairs inside the structure. “No construction activity will be allowed in the building till further orders. Anyone found violating the ban will be arrested,” said a senior officer.

A police picket will be posted in front of the building.

The building, which came up in 1917, has a tin board announcing Nanking Restaurant stuck on the facade, which till recently had the words Toong Oon Church cemented on the wall.

Earlier, some trustees of the church had submitted a petition to the civic body objecting to the sale of the property by a fellow member, Au Yau Wah, whose family started the eatery on the ground floor of the building in 1924.

Members of the Chinese community fear that the religious identity of the building has been erased to pave the way for its demolition and commercial redevelopment.

Some representatives of the community met the municipal commissioner on Thursday and sought his intervention to save the structure from realtors.

Bandyopadhyay said the civic body is planning to take up a “comprehensive scheme” to conserve the sites that are associated with early Chinese settlements in the city and its adjoining areas. “The locality, once called Chinatown, had six big eateries. Nanking was the most famous among them,” said Bandyopadhyay.